The Witch’s Familiar and Why Your Beloved Pet Should Never Hold the Job
Priestess Alissandra Moon is a Spiritual Alchemist, Soul Coach & Mentor for Witches. She has co-authored an international bestseller and is a regular guest on Radio, TV, and Podcasts. Founder of Raven Moon Academy of Magick, she is on a mission to heal the world.
Someone posts a photo of their new kitten with the caption “Meet my new familiar. Share yours,” and a hundred other people start posting photos of every animal in their family, plus the stray cat, wild bird and occasional rat they leave treats out for.
The animal connections we have, especially as Witches, are a beautiful and very special thing. I would never mock them or discourage connecting with our animal kin, especially considering my own deep spiritual connection with birds and other nonhuman people. But the word ‘familiar’ has been stretched so far from its meaning that it now mostly just means a pet “owned” by a Witch. In losing the word’s true meaning, we are also losing one of the oldest and most serious working relationships in the entire craft.
A familiar is a spirit. It is an otherworldly intelligence that enters into a working relationship with a practitioner, assists their magick, and acts as an intermediary between the worlds. Sometimes that spirit works through or incarnates into a physical animal, but the spirit is always the familiar, and an animal carrying one is present for the work. The dog asleep on your feet while you cast or meditate is something precious in its own right, but the difference between the two matters far more than the modern community realises.
What did a familiar spirit actually mean in the old craft?
Go back to the trial records and folk accounts of the early modern period, the closest thing we have to the working craft of ordinary practitioners, and the familiar is unmistakably a spirit. “A Familiar Spirit”. Cunning folk and accused Witches across Britain and Europe described entities that came to them, often at a moment of hardship or need, and entered into ongoing relationships with them. They were there to assist in Magick and what we now call mediumship, kind of like a type of more involved Spirit Guide.
These beings appeared in many forms. Frequently as animals: cats, dogs, toads, hares, birds. Sometimes as human figures, and in several famous accounts, as the beloved dead or as beings of the fairy realm. Witnesses described vivid, clearly defined presences, and the relationships had structure: the spirit was met, an agreement was formed, and the relationship was tended over years.
The Scottish cunning woman Bessie Dunlop (tried in 1576) described her Familiar as the spirit of a man who’d been dead for decades and had been sent to her from the court of Elfhame (a Faery court). The familiar was not just a companion, it worked! That is one of the bigger defining features across all accounts. Familiars diagnosed illness, located lost things, carried Magick to its target or taught Magick. They gathered information their practitioners could not reach alone, guided them between the worlds, and perhaps most importantly, protected them.
Modern scholars like Emma Wilby, in her research into cunning folk and familiar spirits, argue that these accounts reflect a genuine, ancient tradition of spirit alliance rather than an invention of prosecutors, as many of the claims were. The Familiar Spirit is a tradition with deep Shamanic roots in which the practitioner's power was substantially amplified by, or even originated through, the relationship with their spirits. Ultimately, working with a Familiar was close to the very definition of what it meant to be a Witch, yet somehow today that has been forgotten. (Thank you, social media.)
There is some dark irony in that history, and it explains a lot about the present confusion. "Witch hunters" treated ordinary animals as familiars. Under laws like the 1604 Witchcraft Act, keeping a familiar spirit was a felony, and any animal living near an accused woman could be presented as evidence against her. Pets were killed alongside their humans, wild animals that lived nearby or had a friendship with a human were slaughtered, and there were even dogs executed around the Salem trials.
So the messed-up irony? When we point at a beloved animal and call it a familiar, we are, strangely, closer to the prosecutors' logic than to the practitioners' reality. The big difference is that we do it out of love, though, not cruelty and hysteria.
So can an animal ever be a familiar?
Yes, and this is where we need to go a little deeper. A familiar spirit can work through a physical animal and, in some cases, fully incarnate into one. It happens. What is actually occurring in those rare cases is that the "spirit" is the Familiar, while the animal is the vessel and intermediary it is working through. That animal has incarnated for that purpose and knows the job they are coming to do.
Practitioners who have known a true incarnate familiar describe the same things: an animal that sought them out in circumstances too synchronistic to dismiss, an animal that is unmistakably present and participatory in ritual of its own accord, adding to the ritual and even guiding the Witch. These animals behave in ways ordinary animals simply do not when it comes to Magickal work, and their presence tangibly changes the magick. A physical familiar is basically a magickal working partner wearing feathers, scales or fur.
What you cannot do is just appoint one. You can "invite" a deceased pet to work with you as a Familiar spirit and to be bound to you moving forward, but adopting a black cat because you want a familiar and trying to appoint it as one? All that produces is a black cat that is being forced into a role it can’t and shouldn’t have to fill.
The role is initiated from the other side, through spirit, and no amount of wishing, naming or aesthetic loads it onto an animal that came into your home to love and be loved. However, they "can" agree to take on more of a protective role than they should.
Most animals in practitioners' homes, including the ones that sit with us at the altar, are just family members, and every single one of them deserves to be exactly that. They are attracted to the nice energy that we raise and emit during spiritual practice and like to snuggle with us when we are super calm and relaxed during meditation. Sometimes they will help to heal and protect us energetically and spiritually, but that’s not the same thing.
Why should you never want your pet in this role?
The biggest reason I felt called to write this is that I’m seeing an increase in people assigning their pets this role and asking the universe for a Familiar in animal form. Although it doesn’t exactly work that way, you need to be aware of the other side of the job, because it’s not pretty.
A working familiar stands between its practitioner and what comes to get them. Protection is one of its oldest recorded functions, and any spirit or creature genuinely holding that post takes the hits meant for you. It intercepts harmful energies, absorbs what was aimed at your field, and puts itself in the path of attack, because that is the job.
A spirit can hold that. A small animal body cannot, at least not for very long. An animal pressed into genuine protective spiritual service pays for it with their own body, absorbing again and again what was directed at the Witch. In simple terms, taking bullet after bullet for you.
Practitioners who work with an animal Familiar have long observed the same grim pattern: the beloved animal cast in the Familiar's role weakens, gets sick, and eventually dies. Often suddenly, well before their time. It’s devastating! Although they knew and chose to take on the role, it doesn’t mean they don’t suffer, and it doesn’t make it any less agonising for us when that time comes.
So, when I see someone proudly declaring their darling cat to be their familiar and protector, I do not see a harmless bit of misnaming. I see a person unknowingly asking the creature they love most to stand up and take energetic bullets for them. Love your pet as a pet, a member of your family. Keep it out of the line of fire. If you want protection, learn to protect yourself properly, build your own wards and train your own field. You can also birth a Servitor and work with your other spirit allies. If you want a Familiar, seek one where familiars actually live and are strongest, in the spirit realm.
So, how do you get a familiar spirit?
Slowly, through dedication and practice, which is exactly why the idea of a shortcut version became so popular. In most cases, Familiars arrive through a good relationship with the otherworld, and it’s mostly "them" who initiate. What you can do is become the kind of Witch a Familiar will want to work with. Dedicated to growth, practice, continued learning and solid virtues.
Develop your energetic perception skills and continue to work on them. ’Cause frankly you can’t work with a spirit you can’t perceive, and you certainly can’t tell a beneficial one from a parasite without trained discernment (which is its own essential skill and the reason spirit work sits further along the path, rather than at the start). Learn to make contact safely, in proper containers, with protocols for testing what you meet.
Tend any relationship that forms the way the old practitioners did, with respect, offerings, and a commitment to upholding your end of the agreements. Essentially, just build an honest, reciprocal relationship over years. It’s not like rubbing a magic lamp and getting all your wishes granted. It’s a two-way street.
A familiar earned that way is one of the most powerful alliances a Witch can have, second only to her Ancestors and Matron/Patron Deity. Yes, you can do spells and rituals to petition for one, but it’s nowhere near as powerful or rewarding. It’s like earning an award versus begging for one to be given to you or, worse still, stealing one. "Big" difference.
So, for those who like to skim and skip to the end, here’s the summary: the precious animal on your lap is family. The Familiar is a powerful spirit who is bound to the Witch, and begging, cutting corners or trying to force the job upon your beloved animal companion is not the way to go about getting one.
Busting myths, undoing the damage caused by the “InstaWitch ademic”, along with teaching the discernment and skills required to navigate the marvellous world of magick safely, is exactly the kind of deep, structured craft training Raven Moon Academy was built for.
If you want to take a peek into our world, check out our virtual Coven: The Wise Witch Society.
Read more from Alissandra Moon
Alissandra Moon, Priestess, Spiritual Alchemist & Soul Coach
Priestess Alissandra Moon is a world-renowned Healer, Coach, and witch who specialises in Shadow Work, Magickal Mentorship, and transformational Coaching. Obsessed with personal and spiritual development, she has more qualifications than any one human needs. Alissandra is extremely passionate about animal welfare, and Raven Moon Academy is the official Supporter of Animals in Australia. Determined to make Magick & Paganism mainstream, with self-awareness, empowerment, healing, and compassion becoming the new normal. Alissandra calls for the lightworkers to unite for a common cause to make the world a better place!
